Cultural diversity and mental health最新文献

This is an exploratory study that investigated factors influencing the psychosocial adjustment of Central American immigrants with disabilities. The relationships between stress, and perception of disability severity and (a) depression and (b) anxiety were assessed. Furthermore, this study investigated whether social support moderated the impact of stress and severity of disability on depression and anxiety. Stress, severity of disability, and social support explained a high percentage (54%) of the variance in depression. High levels of stress, increased perceptions of severity of disability, and low social support were associated with increased depression. The interactions between support and stress and between support and disability severity did not significantly add to the original model which predicted depression. Main effects were found for stress, disability severity, and the interaction between support and disability severity. Stress and social support significantly accounted for 31% of the variance in anxiety. Increased stress and decreased social support were associated with greater levels of anxiety. The interaction between support and stress did not significantly predict anxiety. Implications of the study in terms of future research and intervention programs targeting mental health outcomes for Latino immigrants with disabilities are discussed.

A clinical case is presented in which a systemic approach to psychotherapy was used. This approach to clinical work is crucial in that the interactive pattern of social and institutional relationships is seen as the context for treatment. Systems theory allows the clinician to move away from a cultural way of thinking about clinical work focused on the individual, and instead views the individual in interaction with multiple systems as the focus for clinical intervention. This case study illustrates the nature of systemic work by demonstrating four levels of systems that have an impact on work with the patient: the individual level, the family systems level, the clinic system level, and the agency level. The case highlights how therapists in training might consider the context of larger systems that influence the environmental and psychological factors in their patients' lives.

The author proposes that psychotherapy in a collectivistic culture tends to view therapeutic change as dissolving the self by merging with the environment (communion), whereas psychotherapy in an individualistic culture tends to view therapeutic change as enhancing the self by experiencing control over one's self and the environment (agency). By using D. Bakan's (1966) concepts of agency and communion, the author critically investigates the differences in how therapeutic change is viewed as well as how these differences are reflected in the therapeutic procedures of the various forms of psychotherapy between two different cultures (i.e., North America and Japan). It is suggested that psychotherapy in individualistic cultures may benefit from adding more focus to dissolving the self and merging with the environment and that psychotherapy in collectivistic cultures may benefit from adding more focus to enhancing the self by controlling the environment.

The results of an analysis of factors affecting service use among children and adolescents suggest that those served by an ethnically matched therapist stay in outpatient treatment longer and use less day treatment service, a more intensive level of care. These findings support efforts to increase the number and type of ethnic staff delivering children's mental health services and to expand the types of culturally competent services available to children with mental health problems and their families.

The poisonous effects of racism are often obscured by "nice" White American middle class values. The author, a gay Jewish White American, explores the psychodynamics of his own breed of racism through interviewing the African American woman who worked for his family throughout his childhood, and through reflecting on his relationship with her and her relationship with his family. These relationships serve as lenses through which the process and psychological impact of acquiring racist values is viewed. In this article, connections are drawn between the author's personal racism, the historical and cultural realities of the "Black Mammy" stereotype, and the history of African American women domestic workers' experience in America.

This is a report of 2 studies. Study 1, a replication of R.F. Levant and R.G. Majors (1997), examined variations in the endorsement of traditional and nontraditional masculinity ideology, by gender and race, among 270 African American and 226 European American young men and women using the Male Role Norms Inventory (MRNI; Levant & Fischer, in press). Although both gender and race differences in masculinity ideology were significant, gender had a larger effect size. Study 2, focused on the effect of residence in different geographic regions of the country, compared the MRNI scores of the more metropolitan Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic sample of the present study with those of the more rural Southern sample used by Levant and Majors. This study found that the effect of geographic place of residence moderates the effect of race on masculinity ideology, which underscores the importance of subcultural variations (e.g., metropolitan vs. rural) within cultural groups defined by race.

Research suggests that Asian Indian immigrants do not consider counseling as an option for problem resolution. This study examined attitudes toward counseling among 101 Asian Indians and predicted that Asian Indian immigrants would espouse negative attitudes toward counseling and thus dismiss counseling as a coping strategy, whereas second-generation immigrants would have more positive opinions. Perceived prestige, pride, and privacy were factors predicted to positively correlate with negative attitudes. Results from an attitude survey created by the authors suggest that Asian Indians reported more neutral or fairly positive attitudes toward counseling than were expected. Individuals who immigrated before 10 years of age responded with more positive attitudes to counseling than did those who immigrated at a later age.